IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v6y2003i1p1-4.html

Are Nominal Wages Downwardly Rigid? New Australian Evidence on an Old Quarrel

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Flatau

    (Murdoch University)

Abstract

Wage rigidity and its effects on macroeconomic performance has been a central topic of macroeconomic debate ever since the publication, in 1936, of Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. In the General Theory, Keynes summed up ‘classical’ theory as suggesting that nominal wage flexibility was the foundation stone of a self-adjusting and well-working economic system and that nominal wage rigidity was the source of maladjustment in the macroeconomy (Keynes, [1936] 1973, p. 257). In Keynes’s system, however, employment is determined by the level of aggregate demand and nominal wage cuts only have force to the extent that they may (but are certainly not guaranteed to) increase effective demand by boosting expected consumption and expected investment. Hence, downward nominal wage rigidity, while a possible contributory factor in maintaining unemployment as an equilibrium condition, is by no means the cause of such a condition.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Flatau, 2003. "Are Nominal Wages Downwardly Rigid? New Australian Evidence on an Old Quarrel," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 1-4, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:6:y:2003:i:1:p:1-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE061flatau.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huw Dixon, 1999. "New Keynesian economics, nominal rigidities and involuntary unemployment," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 221-238.
    2. Kahn, Shulamit, 1997. "Evidence of Nominal Wage Stickiness from Microdata," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 993-1008, December.
    3. Smith, Jennifer C, 2000. "Nominal Wage Rigidity in the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 176-195, March.
    4. Jacqueline Dwyer, 2003. "Nominal Wage Rigidity in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 5-24, March.
    5. Andrew Charlton, 2003. "Nominal Wage Rigidity in The Australian Labour Market: Evidence from household Data," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 25-36, March.
    6. Alan S. Blinder & Don H. Choi, 1990. "A Shred of Evidence on Theories of Wage Stickiness," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(4), pages 1003-1015.
    7. repec:bla:scandj:v:97:y:1995:i:2:p:295-307 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Grubb, David B. & Jackman, Richard & Layard, Richard, 1983. "Wage rigidity and unemployment in OECD countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1-2), pages 11-39.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barno Blaes, 2008. "Ausmaß und reale Konsequenzen nach unten starrer Nominallöhne," Working Papers 048, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    2. Thomas Beissinger & Chritoph Knoppik, 2005. "Sind Nominallöhne starr? Neuere Evidenz und wirtschaftspolitische Implikationen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 6(2), pages 171-188, May.
    3. Smith, Jennifer C., 2002. "Pay Cuts And Morale : A Test Of Downward Nominal Rigidity," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 649, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Steinar Holden & Fredrik Wulfsberg, 2004. "Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in Europe," Working Paper 2004/5, Norges Bank.
    5. Yi-Ping Tseng, 2001. "Individuals’ Wage Changes in Australia 1997-2000," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2001n04, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Park, Seonyoung & Shin, Donggyun, 2017. "The extent and nature of downward nominal wage flexibility: An analysis of longitudinal worker/establishment data from Korea," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 67-86.
    7. Truman F. Bewley, 2002. "Fairness, Reciprocity, and Wage Rigidity," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1383, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    8. Beissinger Thomas & Knoppik Christoph, 2001. "Downward Nominal Rigidity in West German Earnings, 1975-95," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(4), pages 385-417, December.
    9. Jacqueline Dwyer, 2003. "Nominal Wage Rigidity in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(1), pages 5-24, March.
    10. Smith, Jennifer C., "undated". "Pay cuts and morale: a test of downward nominal rigidity," Economic Research Papers 269462, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    11. Pierre Fortin & George A. Akerlof & William T. Dickens & George L. Perry, 2002. "Inflation and Unemployment in the U.S. and Canada: A Common Framework," Cahiers de recherche du Département des sciences économiques, UQAM 20-16, Université du Québec à Montréal, Département des sciences économiques.
    12. Steinar Holden & Fredrik Wulfsberg, 2004. "Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in Europe (new title: The costs of price stability - downward nominal wage rigidity in Europe)," CESifo Working Paper Series 1177, CESifo.
    13. Boris Hirsch & Thomas Zwick, 2015. "How Selective Are Real Wage Cuts? A Micro-analysis Using Linked Employer–Employee Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(4), pages 327-347, December.
    14. Mark E Schweitzer, 2007. "Wage flexibility in Britain: some micro and macro evidence," Bank of England working papers 331, Bank of England.
    15. Erlandsen, Solveig K. & Juelsrud, Ragnar Enger, 2023. "Downward nominal house price rigidity: Evidence from three centuries of data on housing transactions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    16. Bruce Fallick & Daniel Villar Vallenas & William L. Wascher, 2016. "Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in the United States During and After the Great Recession," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-001r1, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 15 May 2020.
    17. Thomas Bauer & Holger Bonin & Lorenz Goette & Uwe Sunde, 2007. "Real and Nominal Wage Rigidities and the Rate of Inflation: Evidence from West German Micro Data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(524), pages 508-529, November.
    18. Louis N. Christofides & Thanasis Stengos, 2003. "Wage Rigidity in Canadian Collective Bargaining Agreements," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(3), pages 429-448, April.
    19. Daniel Schäfer & Carl Singleton, 2020. "Nominal Wage Adjustments and the Composition of Pay: New Evidence from Payroll Data," Economics working papers 2020-11, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    20. Elsby, Michael W.L., 2009. "Evaluating the economic significance of downward nominal wage rigidity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 154-169, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:6:y:2003:i:1:p:1-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.